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by Susan Smith - Managing EditorEach GIS Weekly Review delivers to its readers news concerning the latest developments in the GIS industry, GIS product and company news, featured downloads, customer wins, and coming events, along with a selection of other articles that we feel you might find interesting. Brought to you by GISCafe.com. If we miss a story or subject that you feel deserves to be included, or you just want to suggest a future topic, please contact us! Questions? Feedback? Click here. Thank you!

As retailers and video rental companies expand their high-definition offerings, Blu-ray is the new "must-have" technology to help get the most out of your viewing experience.

The award-winning Inspiron 1525 laptop features a 15.4-inch high definition wide aspect display with 720p resolution. It also includes an HDMI port for easy connectivity to high resolution displays and HDTVs.

TeleCommunication Systems, Inc., provider of mission-critical wireless communications and content, announced the availability of the Xypoint Mapping Server release 5.3 with new features that improve application developers' ability to rapidly build and deploy location-based services.

The Xypoint Mapping Server has been widely used and enhanced for more than a decade. Customers use it for sophisticated applications including roadside service, directory assistance, vehicle tracking, and telematics. Supporting Web, mobile and connected navigation applications, release 5.3 provides a technology platform for applications to request and receive location, routing and point-of-interest information, as well as to generate tiled maps.

Garmin International Inc., a unit of Garmin Ltd., announced that users can now send locations found on Google Maps(TM), an innovative online mapping service, directly to their Garmin personal navigation device.

First American Proxix Solutions, a member of The First American Corporation family of companies and a leading provider of geospatial technology, data and software, today announced the addition of risk concentration as an option in its CATUM automated insurance suite.

One of the challenges facing property and casualty companies is the ability to accurately identify a concentration of policy risk within a geographic area. Traditionally, property and casualty companies have attempted to measure risk concentration by counting the number of policies in a defined geographic region, such as counties, cities or ZIP codes. However, this method does not identify whether policies are clustered or dispersed within a given geographic region.

Telogis announced the release of OnTrack 6, the most reliable and easy-to-use Software as a Service (SaaS) GPS Tracking Application on the market. Telogis' real-time GPS Fleet Tracking solution drives rapid return on investment for businesses of all sizes through improvement of productivity and enhancement of their operations. New features in this release include a Web 2.0 aesthetic makeover, advanced PDF and Excel reporting, updated GeoStream maps, and the integration of Live Messaging.

Using the Nuance Mobile Speech Platform on select devices, TeleNav now provides the ability to enter destinations for driving directions and business category searches by voice, so that subscribers no longer need to use a telephone keypad. Users can simply state the destination address, or select from a database of more than 10 million points of interest by stating a category, such as "pharmacy," or by stating a specific business name, such as "Walgreens."

Map Middle East 2008, the Fourth Annual Middle East Conference on Geospatial Information, Technology & Applications will provide a platform to showcase the innovative applications of the Geospatial domain.

Join other Southeastern Regional GIS users April 14-16, 2008 to discuss challenges and solutions that are unique to your area. Learn from your colleagues about successful GIS applications in many business and government agencies that can provide new ideas and inspiration.

The Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers attracts geographers and related professionals from around the world. Our meeting forum stimulates discussion about research, education, accomplishments, and developments in geography.

Disaster Management 2008 would be a platform to attract exhibitors from all over the world and would not only provide an opportunity to tap huge markets, but at the same time allow them to personally interact with the big-wigs of the industry.

GIS covers such a broad range of subjects, applications and types of people that use it, that developing a conference program that meets everyone’s needs is a challenging task. Even more challenging is an attendee trying to figure out exactly which sessions or topics will be most interesting and helpful. MAGIC 2008 is intended to focus the content of the presentation options into a program specifically geared to each attendee’s needs.

We are pleased to announce the 2008 Overwatch Users Group Conference. The conference will be held at the Westwood Country Club in Vienna, Virginia on April 21-24. Each of our product development groups has been hard at work creating new features to help analysts and GIS users maximize their screen time. If you use RemoteView, ELT/Series, Feature Analyst, LIDAR Analyst, Urban Analyst or InterSCOPE, you should come to the conference

The California Geographic Information Systems Conference is a premier event offering unrivaled value to individuals and organizations in the GIS field. Attendees will find opportunities to boost professional and organizational performance with access to:

Several in-depth educational tracks

Best practices sharing from peers

Access to exhibit hall with sponsors showing the latest & greatest in the GIS industry

The annual Delaware GIS Conference provides an opportunity to exchange ideas, share knowledge, and network with other professionals in the region. Each year this conference draws more than 200 geospatial professionals from a wide array of backgrounds including decision-makers, managers, educators, and state and local government staff.

The ESRI Business GIS Summit is the leading forum for collaboration and networking with other users of business-focused GIS solutions. Business professionals from banking, health care, insurance, logistics, manufacturing, media, real estate, retail, utilities, and related industries are encouraged to attend.

Location Technology 2008 will focus exclusively on enabling technologies: Those hardware, software and data technologies that support and enhance the development, application and diffusion of core geospatial implementations to significantly improve performance and productivity.

Join ASPRS: The American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, April 28 to May 2, 2008, in Portland, Oregon for the ASPRS 2008 Annual Conference. The conference theme "Bridging the Horizons - New Frontiers in Geospatial collaboration" will offer an outstanding program of general and technical sessions looking to the future of the geospatial industry.

Improving Michigan’s Access to Geographic Information Networks (IMAGIN, Inc) in partnership with the Michigan Association of Planning, announces the 2008 May Annual Conference in Dearborn, Michigan. Share your expertise, enhance your professional development, and network with those leveraging geospatial applications and technologies with professionals across the Great Lake State and Region. This year’s conference will feature speakers and professional presentations featuring how GIS applications will strengthen our economic future. Additional topic areas will include server